TENDENTIAL MODERNITY

This book explores the concept of tendential modernity, which is presented as the most appropriate approach to an explanation of the process of modernization in many societies. In opposition to the classical definition of modernity, related to progress and linear evolution, and to never-ending advances in a pre-determined direction, tendential modernity shows a particular penchant for the co-habitation of modernity with pre-modern social practices and traditions. In these societies, there is a gap between faster institutional renewal and slower economic development. Consequently, cultural, political and intellectual modernity outrun social and economic modernity. The book analyses an explanatory model of modern evolution, the features of tendential modernity, and resistance to modernity.